Simon, Julian Lincoln, 1932-1998

Julian Lincoln Simon was a professor of economics and a prolific writer on a variety of subjects. His main interest was in the economic effects of population changes, but he also researched and wrote about natural resources, advertising, mail order, statistics, immigration, and managerial economics. He also authored several pieces about overcoming depression, which are based on his own experiences with depression. His ideas on population and natural resources ran counter to conventional thinking, as he argued that increasing population would be of benefit to mankind. He was also the first to suggest that airlines provide incentives for passengers to give up their seats on overbooked flights. He earned a B.A. in experimental psychology from Harvard University in 1953, an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago in 1959, and a Ph.D in business economics from the University of Chicago in 1961. In 1959 he began working at the University of Chicago as Associate Director for a Library Use Study. From 1961-1963 he owned a mail-order firm and advertising agency called Julian Simon Associates. He was a professor in economics, marketing, and advertising at the University of Illinois from 1963-1983. During his twenty year tenure there he spent time as a visiting professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. In 1983 he began working as Professor of Business Administration at the University of Maryland. He died in February 1998.

From the guide to the Julian Lincoln Simon papers, 1953-1996, (University of Wyoming. American Heritage Center.)